GS Hoarding ... aluminum?

[MNeagle]

Special report: Goldman's new money machine: warehouses

http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/FZN6924R0WZ__x92.x6.GA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9Zml0O2g9Mjc-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/logo/reuters/d0c3eb8ca18907492a4b337b5cec5193.jpeg (http://www.reuters.com/)

http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/64uU5a_erE.Pcx0GOvTovw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Y2g9MzE5O2NyPTE7Y3c9NDUwO2R4PTA7ZH k9MDtmaT11bGNyb3A7aD0xMzU7cT04NTt3PTE5MA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2011-07-28T092130Z_01_BTRE76R0PZW00_RTROPTP_2_LME-WAREHOUSING.JPG

A warehouse contracted out by Goldman Sachs warehouse subsidiary Metro International...



LONDON/DETROIT (Reuters) - In a rundown patch of Detroit, enclosed by a cyclone fence and barbed wire, stands an unremarkable warehouse that investment bank Goldman Sachs has transformed into a money-making machine.

The derelict neighborhood off Michigan Avenue is a sharp contrast to Goldman's bustling skyscraper headquarters near Wall Street, but the two operations share one important element: management by the bank's savvy financial professionals.

A string of warehouses in Detroit, most of them operated by Goldman, has stockpiled more than a million tonnes of the industrial metal aluminum, about a quarter of global reported inventories.

Simply storing all that metal generates tens of millions of dollars in rental revenues for Goldman every year.

There's just one problem: only a trickle of the aluminum is leaving the depots, creating a supply pinch for manufacturers of everything from soft drink cans to aircraft.

The resulting spike in prices has sparked a clash between companies forced to pay more for their aluminum and wait months for it to be delivered, Goldman, which is keen to keep its cash machines humming and the London Metal Exchange (LME), the world's benchmark industrial metals market, which critics accuse of lax oversight.

Analysts question why London's metals market allows big financial players like Goldman to own the warehouses which store huge quantities of metal even as they trade the commodity.

Robin Bhar, a veteran metals analyst at Credit Agricole in London says the conflict of interest is so acute he wants U.S. and European anti-trust regulators to weigh in.

"I think it makes a mockery of the market. It's a shame," Bhar said. "This is an anti-competitive situation. It puts (some) companies at an advantage, and clearly the rest of the market at a disadvantage. It's a real, genuine concern. And I think the regulators have to look at it."

rest of story: http://news.yahoo.com/special-report-goldmans-money-machine-warehouses-090810768.html

[Neuro]

I think aluminium is one of the better shit hit the fan metals, it is light, strong, durable, and a good conductor of electricity could be used in an aluminium air battery, you can make thermite if you mix it with rust, you can melt and cast it without too complicated equipment, but it can't be manufactured in SHTF situation, since it requires an enormous amount of electricity to extract it from bauxit ore in a smelter... But I figure there will be plenty of scrap aluminium available, in that situation...

No doubt though Gollum Sucks is just trying to corner the market for a quick buck, rather than preparing for SHTF, which they will be one of the main culprits of. It has been awfully quiet about GS the last year or so, instead the focus has been on JPM... A magicians trick? Diverting the attention to the other hand?

[keehah]

Well if the government decides it has to control the aluminium market 'to fix this', I'd expect them to add gold and silver to the legislation at the last moment once all the debate is over. ;)

[gunDriller]

GS just likes the Politics of Privilege.

they don't give a fvch about aluminum, they just got a sweetheart deal on aluminum warehousing.

i feel sorry for the warehousemen & women, it would suck having GS as your employer.

[MAGNES]

That stash belongs to my buddy.

He's doing aluminum , I'm doing tin. O0

On a more serious note they are definitely up to something.
Rigging all commodities the way they play gold and silver.
The Cartel went after copper in this way a while back.
It is like they are operating on a list, order of importance
based on value, gold, silver, copper, aluminum, ...

[Cebu_4_2]

Really, think my kid would appreciate this little tidbit!

you can make thermite if you mix it with rust

[vacuum]

Aluminum is one of the most abundant elements in the earth's crust. All you need to make it is large amounts of energy....that's where it's cost comes from. So it's an interesting metal to hoard..

[Shami-Amourae]

Rothschilds do this with diamonds...

...Oh wait the Rothschilds own Goldman Sachs.

[keehah]

People will get sick and may die from this.
Being around stored gold and silver is actually good for you.

Otherwise its a 2fer, like vacuum said.

[Neuro]

Aluminum is one of the most abundant elements in the earth's crust. All you need to make it is large amounts of energy....that's where it's cost comes from. So it's an interesting metal to hoard..
Yes, it is dependent on modern access to energy. I have read that Napoleon Bonaparte had a stylish set of aluminium plates, and at the time aluminium was more valuable than gold. I have no idea how aluminium was manufactured 200 years ago though...

[Neuro]

Rothschilds do this with diamonds...

...Oh wait the Rothschilds own Goldman Sachs.
They don't have that many different strategies to steal wealth from the working man!

[Neuro]

Yes, it is dependent on modern access to energy. I have read that Napoleon Bonaparte had a stylish set of aluminium plates, and at the time aluminium was more valuable than gold. I have no idea how aluminium was manufactured 200 years ago though...

Correction it was his Nephew Napoleon III, who had the plate:

Aluminium in history
Although aluminium was not used in widespread commercial applications until the late 19th century, its existence was known many years previous, and it had received acknowledgement from the most unlikely of places.

Pottery and Dyes

Naturally occurring compounds of aluminium were actually put to use by ancient civilisations. Clays made of hydrated aluminium silicates were used in pottery and aluminium sulphate was known to the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans as a mordant in the dyeing process.

Pliny the Elder

Some scholars have suggested limited production of aluminium metal may have occurred as long as 2000 years ago. In his famous encyclopedia "Historia Naturalis" Pliny the Elder mentions a familiar sounding silvery metal:

"One day a goldsmith in Rome was allowed to show the Emperor Tiberius a dinner plate of a new metal. The plate was very light, and almost as bright as silver. The goldsmith told the Emperor that he had made the metal from plain clay. He also assured the Emperor that only he, himself, and the Gods knew how to produce this metal from clay. The Emperor became very interested, and as a financial expert he was also a little concerned. The Emperor felt immediately, however, that all his treasures of gold and silver would decline in value if people started to produce this bright metal of clay. Therefore, instead of giving the goldsmith the regard expected, he ordered him to be beheaded."
Although we cannot test the truth behind this story the metal's description is intriguing. Many centuries later another Emperor, Napoleon III, used aluminium plates and cutlery to serve the King of Siam at a state banquet. Aluminium was then a rare and precious metal and less important guests had to eat from plates of pure gold.

Charles Dickens

Famous British writer Charles Dickens is well known for his sharp social commentary and well observed wit. Less well known are Dickens' opinions on aluminium. Over 140 years ago, approximately 30 years before the work of Hall and Héroult, Dickens became very interested in the discovery of a new metal that he believed would have an outstanding future. The metal was aluminium, and in 1857 he wrote:

"Within the course of the last two years .. a treasure has been divined, unearthed and brought to light ... what do you think of a metal as white as silver, as unalterable as gold, as easily melted as copper, as tough as iron, which is malleable, ductile, and with the singular quality of being lighter that glass? Such a metal does exist and that in considerable quantities on the surface of the globe. The advantages to be derived from a metal endowed with such qualities are easy to be understood. Its future place as a raw material in all sorts of industrial applications is undoubted, and we may expect soon to see it, in some shape or other, in the hands of the civilised world at large."
Aluminium has indeed fulfilled Dickens's prophecy ... but even he would no doubt be amazed at the thousands of different products in which it is now used throughout the world.

From:
http://www.world-aluminium.org/?pg=13